Business Agility Requires Empowerment at 3 Levels

Leading business agility requires creating the environment so diverse teams of stakeholders are empowered – are willing and able – to collaboratively explore (understand), experiment (learn), and exploit (create value). Stakeholders are empowered by:

• knowing the ‘rules of the game’ (organizational);
• being aligned with and engaged in the purpose of the project (team); and
• being supported in personal learning and transformation (individual).

The challenge is knowing how to strike the right balance for the context, and having the competencies to do so effectively.

Table of Contents

1.     Organizational Empowerment

2.     Team Empowerment

3.     Individual Empowerment

4.     Balancing the 3-Levels for the Context

5.     Conclusion

Organizational EmpowermentFor projects to work well, there must be organizational understanding, purpose, fairness, and transparency. Parameters of the project, and the approach to work need to be defined so everyone is aware of the expectations.

For sustainably successful projects, the nature of the project and the organization must be understood. Projects and organizations are systems nested within – and nesting – many other independent and interdependent systems. Systems include humans, teams, organizations, industries, economies, etc.

Leaders must recognize the dynamics and complexity of these systems, with a specific recognition that humans are uniquely complex systems. By developing a holistic perspective of the environment, it is easier to identify where there are real leverage points to create desired change.

When a project is started, the leader must ensure there is a clear, and commonly understood purpose for the work. The purpose should have some element of co-creation, so it addresses the real challenge in a way that generates real value over time (ie not just once). In innovation and transformation, the purpose can rarely be defined as a clear destination (eg a specific product or service); rather it tends to be defined as a state of being (eg addressing a continuously evolving challenge).

The level of detail that needs to be sketched out at the structural level is determined by the quality and characteristics of the challenge. If it is a linear challenge (ie known-unknowns), then it is likely the purpose and the outline of the solution can be sketched out by people above the team level. However, if the challenge is nebulous and/or evolving (ie unknown-unknowns), then the challenge likely needs to be explored and the solution developed by a team or teams of stakeholders. Most change, transformation, and innovation projects are in the unknown-unknown domain.

Defining the purpose of and the approach to the project provides direction to define the required competencies, role definitions, allocation of responsibilities, ownership, metrics, etc. A critical piece of defining the work is defining processes and expectations, which are the foundations for fairness and transparency.

Defining the who, what, where, when, how, and why in a holistic way for all stakeholders is essential to creating psychological safety and motivation, which are critical for organizational level empowerment of stakeholders.

Team Empowerment

The best teams for change, transformation, and innovation are diverse teams that bring a range of perspectives, thinking styles, complementary competencies, and expertise, etc. However, diversity can be challenging because of the differences. And agility is a process of creative conflict (creative abrasion/exploring, creative agility/experimentation, and creative resolution/exploiting).

Therefore, in addition to the organizational elements that need to be put in place, leaders must also ensure the conditions exist that empower each team appropriately. One critical thing the leaders must do is to maintain the resilience of the team: this includes accepting setbacks honestly, finding meaning in the experiences, being entrepreneurial and innovative to generate better solutions, and maintaining motivation.

To keep the work effective, stakeholders must be able to influence how they work together, especially as the challenge and the responses evolve. Therefore, the focus of work must be on the work itself, and on the agile process. To moderate the intensity of creative conflict, the agility process can gradually increase diversity as ideas are developed.

As leaders, we are like orchestra conductors: maintaining alignment with the organization (purpose, people, and processes), and fostering connections and collaboration. When our teams show signs of losing focus, or when conflict is not creative or constructive, we can help our teams renegotiate their purpose, process, and approaches.

Individual Empowerment

To participate in agility, stakeholders – including leaders – must be willing and able to do so. However, it isn’t easy. The environment is nebulous and constantly evolving requiring the organization to constantly evolve. And the process of exploring, experimenting, and exploiting requires the team and individuals to keep transforming as well. There is a lot of uncertainty and complexity, which can be stressful and result in the opposite responses needed for agility.

When we are stressed, our bodies go into a threat response (fight, flight, or freeze). This can significantly reduce our ability to engage in the collaborative process of creative-conflict (exploring, experimenting, and exploiting). If we learn to leverage our stress, develop body wisdom, and be compassionate and let go, we can mitigate the effects of stress and biases, and leverage the information our bodies generate.

However, we can also reduce our likelihood of going into threat response by strengthening our mindsets, the combination of our assumptions, beliefs, identities, etc. An entrepreneurial mindset is the willingness and ability to engage in creative conflict. It depends on other mindsets. A holistic mindset allows us to work with the uncertainty and fluidity of complex systems. A collaborative mindset allows us to change our paradigm of how we think about working with others. And a growth mindset is the desire to continuously learn, develop mastery, and transform.

By developing our mindsets and competencies, we can reduce the challenges and increase the opportunities of participating in agility. Individuals are responsible for their mindsets and competencies, however, as leaders, we can create cultures that foster the ability and willingness to engage in personal transformation as part of organizational transformation.

Balancing the 3-Levels for the Context

There is no one ‘right way’ to balance organizational, team, and individual empowerment. And given the dynamics of the many systems involved, what may have been a good balance at one point in time, may not be a beneficial balance at another time.

By being aware of the three levels of empowerment, and by continuously improving our understanding of the many systems, it becomes easier to recognize what approaches might lead to better outcomes. And being agile is in itself a process of agility, an iterative process of exploring, experimenting, and exploiting.

Recognizing that leading agility is a balancing act can make it easier to develop an understanding of the many moving pieces and their dynamics, and to be agile not only to deliver a project, but to also develop a culture of agility.

Conclusion

Leading business agility depends on empowering stakeholders – including ourselves – at three levels. Organizational empowerment creates the conditions where team members know how and why to engage in the process. Team empowerment fosters the ability to engage in creative-conflict. And individual empowerment fosters continuous personal transformation and growth so agility can be fully engaged in.

Understanding how the various entities or systems related to the project interact is the key to understanding how to maintain balance of those three levels. By fostering a healthy interplay among the organizational, team, and individual levels, leaders can create an environment that is supportive of valuable exploration, experimentation, and exploitation.

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How have you developed agile teams? What works to empower your stakeholders? Is there anything in this article that might help you enhance your leadership?

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You can accelerate breakthrough results by working with someone who can help you navigate the process and improve sustainable performance. I would be pleased to speak with you to explore how I can help you generate your sustainable competitive advantage and create your breakthrough results.

Catarina von Maydell, MBA, works with leaders, individuals, and teams to facilitate sustainable breakthrough performance improvement and growth. She has helped many of her clients achieve record-breaking performance.

Other articles you might be interested in:

Mindsets:

• Entrepreneurial, Growth, Holistic, and Collaborative  Mindsets

Collaborative & Entrepreneurial Competencies:

• Effectuation, Creative Conflict,  Graduated Creative-Conflict, Creating Collaboration, and the Creator-Coach-Challenger Paradigm

Personal Super-Powers:

• Body Wisdom, Mitigating Bias, and Generating Better Solutions

Leading Change and Transformation:

• Project Management Best Practices, Understanding Our Systems, Thinking Beyond Simple Metrics, and Deming’s 4 Factors of Change 
• Business Agility is About Humans, Human Dynamics in Organizations, 3-Levels of Leadership, Motivating Humans, Fostering Collaboration, Leadership and Resilience, and Psychological Safety